Cool Inventions
For Light Sleepers
Millions of people have trouble falling asleep each night, which is why LightSleeper was created.
Developed in the United Kingdom，LightSleeper’s makers say it can help a person fall asleep and also help a person fall back to sleep after waking up in the middle of the night.
LightSleeper works by projecting (投射) a light onto the ceiling while the person is lying down. The idea is to watch the light, because the light moving in a circle has a relaxing effect.
One of the advantages of the product is that it won’t disturb other people in the room. The product can be easily moved and will switch itself off after 30 minutes to save power.
Stop the Snoring (打鼾)
Here’s a new product designed to slow down the frequency and level of your snoring. The Snore Stopper has a sensitive instrument that will detect when you’re snoring. Once it does that, it will send a very mild electronic signal to your wrist. This consequently changes your sleeping position to stop you from snoring. The Snore Stopper won’t cause any damage to your body.
Get Your True Colors
Photoshop features a pen that will copy the color settings of what you are monitoring on screen to use as a color in your program. Now an offline product allows you to pick a color when not using the computer software.
The Color Picker is a concept pen. After placing the pen against an object, the user just presses the scan button. Color sensors (感应器) inside the pen send information to a box, which then mixes red, green and blue to produce the desired ink color.
Keep It Fresh
More high technology products are showing up in the kitchen. A new Bagel dome (圆顶形物) advertises that it will keep your baked goods fresher for longer periods of time. The product, which is able to remove air, works for bread rolls, cakes and other perishables. To use it, you just push a button at the top.
1.How can LightSleeper help a person fall asleep?
A. Its light makes people feel calm.
B. It doesn’t make any noise.
C. It is fixed on the ceiling.
D. Its light moves fast.
2.What do we know about the Snore Stopper?
A. It will cause slight damage to a person’s body.
B. It will wake a person up once he starts snoring.
C. It can make sure a person doesn’t snore all night.
D. It can make a person snore less by changing his sleeping position.
3.The Color Picker will probably be used while you’re ________.
A. using the computer
B. drawing pictures
C. collecting information
D. designing a program
4.The underlined word “perishables” in the last paragraph refers to foods which ________.
A. are easy to keep B. go bad easily
C. are rich in vitamins D. keep you thin
While waiting to pick up a friend at an airport in Portland, Oregon, I had one of those life changing experiences that you hear other people talk about — the kind that happens to you unexpectedly. To me, this happened and was only two feet away from me.
Locating my friend among the passengers, I noticed a man coming toward me carrying two light bags. He stopped right next to me to greet his family.
First he walked to his youngest son (maybe 6 years old) as he laid down his bags. They gave each other a long, loving hug. As they separated enough to look in each other’s face, I heard the father say, “It’s so good to see you, son. I missed you so much！” His son smiled somewhat shyly, and replied softly, “Me too, Dad！”
Then the man stood up, gazed into the eyes of his oldest son (maybe 9 or 10) and while cupping his son’s face in his hands said, “You’re already quite a young man. I love you very much, Zach！” They too hugged a most loving, tender hug.
While this was happening, a baby girl (perhaps one or oneandahalfyear old) was squirming (扭动) excitedly in her mother’s arms, never once taking her little eyes off the wonderful sight of her returning father. The man said，“Hi, baby girl！” as he gently took the child from her mother. He quickly kissed her face all over and then held her close to his chest while rocking her from side to side. The little girl instantly relaxed and simply laid her head on his shoulder, motionless in pure contentment.
After several moments, he handed his daughter to his oldest son and declared, “I’ve saved the best for last！” and went to give his wife the longest, most passionate kiss I ever remember seeing. He gazed into her eyes for several seconds and then silently mouthed, “I love you so much！” They stared into each other’s eyes, beaming big smiles at one another, while holding both hands.
For an instant they reminded me of newlyweds, but I knew by the age of their kids that they couldn’t possibly be. I puzzled about it for a moment then realized how totally attentive I was in the wonderful display of unconditional love not more than an arm’s length away from me. I suddenly felt uncomfortable, as if I was invading something sacred, but was amazed to hear my own voice nervously ask，“Wow! How long have you two been married？”
“Been together fourteen years total, married twelve of those.” he replied, without breaking his gaze from his lovely wife’s face. “Well then, how long have you been away？” I asked. The man finally turned and looked at me, still beaming his joyous smile. “Two whole days！”
Two days? I was stunned. I had assumed he’d been gone for at least several weeks — if not months. I know my expression betrayed me. “I hope my marriage is still that passionate after twelve years！”
The man suddenly stopped smiling.
He looked me straight in the eye, and with forcefulness that burned right into my soul, he told me something that left me a different person, “Don’t hope, friend ... decide！” Then he flashed me his wonderful smile again, shook my hand and said, “God bless！”
With that, he and his family turned and walked away together. I was still watching that exceptional man and his special family walk just out of sight when my friend came up to me and asked, “What are you looking at？” Without hesitating, and with a curious sense of certainty, I replied，“My future！”
1.Which word could best describe the baby girl?
A. Quiet. B. Innocent.
C. Naughty. D. Sweet.
2.What can we learn from the story?
A. The family became the writer’s friends.
B. The writer decided to look for a wife.
C. The writer’s family will get more love from him.
D. The writer will tell his friend the story immediately they meet.
3.Which paragraph in this story best shows the love of the couple?
A. Paragraph 4. B. Paragraph 5.
C. Paragraph 6. D. Paragraph 7.
4.Why does the writer think his airport experience is life changing?
A. Because he came across a most loving family.
B. Because he realized the difference between “hope” and “decide”．
C. Because he thought it was really a unique experience.
D. Because the family he met with had a strange power over him.
Anousheh Ansari is an engineer, a founding member of several tech companies, and if that’s not impressive enough, she’s also an astronaut. She’s the first Iranian to venture (冒险) into space, the first female private space explorer, and the fourth selffunded person to go into space.
Going into space has been a childhood dream for Anousheh. When she was 16 she moved to the U．S and studied engineering. Later, she started Telecom Technologies Inc., which provided network solutions for telecommunications companies. When she sold the company in 2000, she became involved with the X PRIZE foundation.
Anousheh and her family helped sponsor (赞助) the Ansari X PRIZE of $10 million to encourage private companies to develop reusable spacecraft that would fly to the edge of space. 26 teams from 11 countries signed up. The winning spacecraft was Spaceship One, which became the model that Virgin Galactic is based on.
Following the success of the Ansari X PRIZE, she began research for the next competition. But this time, it would be an orbital flight X PRIZE. She signed up as a backup astronaut with Space Adventures in Russia, an independent space exploration company to learn more about space flight. Three weeks before she was to go back home, one of the primary astronauts had an illness and couldn’t go. She was asked to fill in for him.
At the International Space Station, Anousheh became the first astronaut to blog from space. Her blog received a lot of attention as she documented what it was like to live in space and do simple tasks like brushing her teeth and hair. Anousheh described this experience as one of the most magical moments of her life. As an Iranian woman, she hopes her story will inspire other women of the Middle East to give themselves freedom and not to let society, friends or family hold them back from doing what they want to do. There’s nothing they’re not supposed to do or cannot do.
1.From the first paragraph, we can learn that Anousheh Ansari ________.
A. is the fourth female astronaut to go into space
B. is the first female private Iranian space explorer
C. has opened several tech companies all by herself
D. is an Iranian engineer working on space exploration
2.The underlined word “backup” in Paragraph 4 probably refers to “________”．
A. spare B. excellent
C. skillful D. inexperienced
3.According to the last paragraph, Anousheh Ansari ________.
A. asks other women of the Middle East to explore space like her
B. advises other women of the Middle East to ignore their society
C. is satisfied with the present status of women in the Middle East
D. encourages women of the Middle East to do whatever they want
4.What’s the main idea of the text?
A. Any woman can realize her dream.
B. First female private space explorer’s childhood dream.
C. First female private space explorer hopes to inspire others.
D. First female private space explorer’s achievements in space exploration.
假设你叫李华，周末在一家历史博物馆做义务讲解员。请你根据右图及汉语提示，写一篇简短的英语短文，以便向外国游客介绍该文物。
名称：五层彩绘陶仓楼。
年代：东汉。
高度：145厘米。
出土：河南省焦作市马作村。
注意：1.词数100左右。
2．参考词汇：五层彩绘陶仓楼Fivestory Colored Pottery Storage Building
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假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号(∧)，并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线(\)画掉。
修改：在错的词下画一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1.每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2．只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起)不计分。
In the winter vacation, I paid a visit a mountain village in a suburb of Handan. No sooner had I got off the bus when I was greatly surprising to see all the changes. It was far better than I had been expected. Now every family can drink cleanly running water. The villagers needn’t carry water himself any more. Firewood is no longer used for cooking. Marsh gas, a new cheap clean energy, make it very convenient to cook and light. As all the families have color TV set, they can enjoy plays at home. It impressed me most was that the best building in a village was the school. I hope the mountain village will become better and better.
阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。
In the West we are familiar with ballets like Swan Lake. But there's another classical dance form with a long history 1. has only recently burst onto the world scene. It is called classical Chinese dance.
Classical Chinese dance is 2. incredibly demanding, refined, and expressive dance form. Alongside ballet, it is also one of the most comprehensive dance systems 3. (know) to humankind.
4. recently, few people outside China had ever heard of classical Chinese dance. One major reason was that when Chinese companies performed abroad, they often mixed Chinese dance with western dance styles. And so the audience left the theater not sure exactly 5. they had just seen.
In 2006, however, the Shen Yun Performing Arts Company 6. (establish) in New York. Its mission was to promote 7. (tradition) culture, and this included 8. (present) classical Chinese dance in its purest form. Not quite a decade later, classical Chinese dance has become much 9. (well) recognised and is starting to influence western ballet.
Although they have significant differences, both ballet and classical Chinese dance have the ability to vividly tell 10. (story) and move us through beautiful art.
